Welcome to The
History of Santa Claus and Father Christmas. This
website offers a guide to resources available online that deal with
the origins, evolution and lore of Santa Claus and Father
Christmas. The main part of this guide consists of links to
other sites, with some commentary describing the contents and quality
of these sites. However, you will also find here a brief
overview of each stage in the evolution of Santa Claus and extracts
from the work of professional historians, folklorists and
critics on this topic.

This site is divided into
the following sections. The first is St
Nicholas: The Real Santa Claus, which provides resources on
the ecclesiatical bishop St Nicholas of Myra, whom most commentators
consider to be the 'original' of Santa Claus. The second is The
Evolution of St Nicholas. This is concerned with
the medieval and modern European evolution of St Nicholas's cult, most
especially the Dutch winter-visitor Sinterklaas. The third is
America
and the Creation of Santa Claus, which provides resources on
the nineteenth- and twentieth-century creation of Santa Claus out of
these preceding traditions. The fourth is The
English Father Christmas, which gives details of this
Christmas-visitor who seems to have had a separate origin to St
Nicholas/Sinterklaas/Santa Claus. Finally, The
Historians and Santa Claus includes relevant extracts from
the printed work of historians, folklorists and critics on the origins
of Santa.